Yiddishkeit: Jewish Vernacular & the New Land

By Harvey Pekar and Paul Buhle

A “fascinating and enlightening” collection of comics and writings that explore the Yiddish language and the Jewish experience (The Miami Herald).

We hear words like nosh, schlep, and schmutz, but how did they come to pepper American English? In Yiddishkeit, Harvey Pekar and Paul Buhle trace the far-reaching influences of Yiddish from medieval Europe to the tenements of New York’s Lower East Side. This comics anthology contains original stories by such notable writers and artists as Barry Deutsch, Peter Kuper, Spain Rodriguez, and Sharon Rudahl. Through illustrations, comics art, and a full-length play, four major themes are explored: culture, performance, assimilation, and the revival of the language.

“The book is about what Neal Gabler in his introduction labels ‘Jewish sensibility.’…he writes: ‘You really can’t define Yiddishkeit neatly in words or pictures. You sort of have to feel it by wading into it.’ The book does this with gusto.” —TheNew York Times

“As colorful, bawdy, and charming as the culture it seeks to represent.” —Print magazine

“Brimming with the charm and flavor of its subject…a genuinely compelling, scholarly comics experience.” —Publishers Weekly

“A book that truly informs about Jewish culture and, in the process, challenges readers to pick apart their own vocabulary.” —Chicago Tribune

“A postvernacular tour de force.” —The Forward

“With a loving eye Pekar and Buhle extract moments and personalities from Yiddish history.” —Hadassah

“Gorgeous comix-style portraits of Yiddish writers.”––Tablet 

“Yiddishkeit has managed to survive, if just barely…because [it] is an essential part of both the Jewish and the human experience.” —Neal Gabler, author of An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood, from his introduction

“A scrumptious smorgasbord of comics, essays, and illustrations…concentrated tastes, with historical context, of Yiddish theater, literature, characters and culture.” —Heeb magazine

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 15, 2012
• ISBN: 9781613122280

Book preview

Reviews for Yiddishkeit

[rickklaw · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The last fully realized work by the late Pekar, this anthology unveils the lasting influence of Yiddish on American culture. The beautiful, original stories (which includes a play and numerous essays), crafted by a host of creators including co-editor Buhle, Barry Deustsch, Peter Kuper, Allen Lewis Rickman, Spain Rodriguez, Sharon Rudahl, Gary Dumm, David Lasky, Sam Marlow, Danny Fingeroth, Joe Zabel and Pekar himself, explore the history, origins, and the meaning of Yiddishkeit ("Jewishness" as in "a Jewish way of life") in an insightful, intelligent, and entertaining manner. Perhaps the most unusual and unexpected graphic work of the year, the impressive Yiddishkeit successfully peels back centuries of scholarship and dogma while revealing the nuances of the colorful language and its impact on contemporary society.